Heretofore, it has been customary to pierce the skin of a finger, an arm, an ear, or the like, sample a small amount of blood through the pierced skin, and measure various components of the blood using the sampled blood. Particularly, the measurement of a blood glucose level in a diabetic patient is important for monitoring the state of the diabetic patient. It has been recommended for the patient to perform a self glucose monitoring process to monitor daily blood glucose level changes. In view of a growing number of diabetic patients in recent years, there has been a demand for measuring processes and measuring means that are simple and painless.
Blood glucose levels are often measured using the reaction of an enzyme such as glucose oxidase, glucose dehydrogenase, or the like to oxidize glucose. At present, the measurement of a blood glucose level is performed by a blood glucose measuring device according to a colorimetric process for setting in place a test paper which produces a color depending on the amount of blood glucose brought into contact therewith, supplying the test paper with the blood to cause the test paper to give a color, and optically measuring the grade of the color to quantify the blood glucose level (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Sho 63-101757), or an electrode process for electrically measuring a product resulting from the enzymatic reaction referred to above (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Sho 60-17344).
According to the above measuring processes, a dedicated skin-piercing tool, i.e., a needle-like or knife-like piercing means known as a lancet, is used to form a cut in the skin of a patient's finger or the like to allow a body fluid such as the blood to bleed, and the body fluid is transferred to a separately prepared test chip having a test paper or an electrode sensor or the like, and then measured by the blood glucose measuring device (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 7-167786).
For correcting variations of test papers or electrode sensors which occur from production lot to production lot, there have been known a system for recording a parameter for correcting sensor performance variations in a sensor chip (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 7-209242) and a system for using a memory key recording a parameter depending on the production lot of sensor chips and loading the memory key into a measuring device to read the parameter into the measuring device (see, for example, Japanese Translations of PCT for Patent No. Hei 8-502590 and Japanese Translations of PCT for Patent No. Hei 11-510915).
If the memory key is used, however, the memory key needs to be replaced each time a sensor chip of a different production lot is employed. Therefore, it is awkward for the user to use the memory key.
The present invention solves the problems of the above prior art. It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple body fluid component analyzing system which does not require the user to replace a memory key each time a sensor chip of a different production lot is employed.